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Sky's Botched Google Migration In the UK
An anonymous reader writes "Rupert Murdoch-owned British ISP Sky is migrating their customers to the Google Apps platform, and the customer experience is terrible. Their 1 million customers were told that they need to change their client settings to enable SMTP Authentication and other settings on a certain date — but not to do it before then or their e-mail would break; but if you don't do it on the date your e-mail will also break. Oh, and if you're a POP user you also need to enable that manually in the 'Skoogle' interface, as seemingly they chose not to run a system-wide command to allow it for all users. In addition, if you want help then you're pretty much on your own. One user has made 7 support calls and still not been able to access his e-mail since the migration. Hardly surprising that the story has made the papers with their help-desk in meltdown. It does make you wonder why they simply didn't put proxy servers in place to proxy the new service by modifying the old settings in the network and give their customers time to switch over without their e-mail breaking in the meantime. Or even a simple ActiveX tool to help out the less technical users."
Are you mad?
is confusion among the less experienced. I was just looking at the instructions they provide and I will certainly admit it's less than just a few mouse clicks. Any user guide that is like 12 pages of interaction is probably a bit much to ask of the average user. Looks more like a user manual than a quick set of instructions for a "simple change".
I would not thoroughly enjoy following those instructions, and I'm quite certain it terrifies at least 15% of their customer base.
And to the previous comment of "active x - are you mad?" I would add a "me too", for reasons too numerous to get into here.
This is the kind of thing I'd expect to find on an install CD from an ISP, that configures your computer for their service when you insert the CD. Setups like that are either provided on disc or are a "deliver and setup" option for ISPs when they have this level of setup required. Expecting Joe User to do this is just plain crazy.
I bet their phone support is buried for quite some time to come.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
"You can dual boot your computer with Linux, but if you don't defrag and partition the HDD, you'll lose all your data."
Hi there, Mr. Ballmer!
To begin with, your post is wildly off-topic, and that's generally disliked by the moderators here, I suppose that's why you posted AC.
Second, 1997 called and they want your "defrag and partition" statement back. Oh wait, is that still needed with a Microsoft Windows install? Certainly not with Linux. Unless you want to specify manually your partition scheme, it's done automagically for you without disturbing your existing data.
Third, the mess TFA mentions would not exist if all users had Linux installed. In a system that has a proper command scripting language, it's a very simple matter to perform an automatic migration. The problem starts when you need a "simple ActiveX tool" to do the job.
1. Crash transition with no fallback. Risky.
2. Having less technical users handle the changes without ramping up the help desk. Risky.
3. Breaking peoples' email. You're a bloody idiot. I used to be able to break almost anything and people could deal with it, but break the phones or the email and things get very bad, very fast.
This was obviously caused by stupid, useless instructions from Sky's tech support people, and not a Google Docs issue. All the same, I smell a big fat troll here... ActiveX? Are you out of your mind?
Beauty is in the beholder of the eye.
Being an IT bod, people ask you about their home computers, and why has Sky BB email suddenly stopped with some bizare msgs.
I told him, if you haven't changed anything and its been going on for a day or two give em a ring. So he did. Got through all the usual stuff. Only on the fourth call did they inform him he needed to change his settings. The guy didn't elaborate, but I wasn't that interesting.
What a mess.
http://www.writeitfor.us - Writing IT for the IT generation.
I'm sure it isn't "change for sake of progress," it is almost certainly because it is MUCH cheaper.
Running a responsive e-mail server has always been expensive. Now that google has set people's expectations at 2+GB quotas, it is just ridiculous.
Google used their massive infrastructure to make scalability affordable, and ISPs can't compete. Most of their customers probably already use gmail, so why continue offering the service?
In fact there's no need for ActiveX; Microsoft provide the INS/ISP file format for this very purpose, configuring ISP details. Of course it's really laziness to a) turn off the old servers whilst people are still migrating and b) not setup cname records to migrate after a certain time.
The guide or howto for the migration appears to be fool proof. But I wonder whether there could be any technical problem with the migration. Is it possible that Google servers have been overwhelmed by the change that appears to be abrupt?
...this problem has so far earned me GBP 70. I am a freelance computer repairer for home users. I have been to two homes to enable POP and alter the mail client settings. I charged them GBP 35 each. Enabling POP was a struggle because the Sky website didn't seem to want to work properly. After half an hour of trying in both cases I finally managed to reach the necessary check box on the webmail settings page and click Apply.
Both the householders were completely baffled by this change that they never asked for. I told them both that Sky's helpline must be inundated by people literally crying on the phone, unable to understand what has happened and why their mail client doesn't work any more.
This is one of many reasons most people I know don't use their ISP email. Apart from the obvious one that it doesnt usually follow you across ISPs.
I have my work email for business / high priority stuff and web mail for my personal life, I thought this kind of setup was actually the norm.
I have discovered a truly remarkable sig which this post is too small to contain.
Might have surprised Mr Murdoch - he thought he owned all the papers.
ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
It's a bit misleading to say the Rupert Murdoch owns Sky, New International holds about 40% of Sky, and the Murdoch family hold just over 30% of News International. It's really an object lesson in how to maintain control with large but minority shareholdings.
Most of their customers probably already use gmail, so why continue offering the service?
At least among the technically inexperienced, Gmail usage isn't all that high in the UK. Even looking at my college IT class, most of whom were geeks of some description, it was mostly Hotmail or Yahoo.
Of course this is anecdotal evidence, but still...
I write bullshit
I had a quick look at the PDF, and I'll agree that while it's not pretty on-screen, reading a printed copy wouldn't be too bad. At least no more onerous than browsing the brochure-type instructions you get with many consumer products (Linksys routers, for example).
For comparison's sake, the similar changeover by ATT for their customers was handled by a Yahoo-bot (I'm not making that up) email advisory:
A bit simpler, I guess.
Then again, the notice makes no mention of or otherwise provide a link to download their Equifax certificate. And where the hell are the OpenSSL instructions, like using c_rehash, or verifying things with s_client!!??? You'd think they could at least have included a quick howto on configuring fetchmail to use SSL certs, but nooooo!
I guess whatever your knowlege level is, you can always find a reason to bitch and moan about things being too complicated.
POP3 clients (simple or advanced) do not following this "conversation" paradigm, and by not getting a copy of their own post two things happen: A) You have no confirmation the post made it to the list and B) you break threading on the email client because now people are responding to a message that never made it on my list.
The sad part is attempting to send yourself a copy of the message via CC: or BCC: does not work! Its like Gmail went out of its way to ensure you do not get a copy of your own post. Additionally while Google searching suggests there is an option to get yourself a copy of your own post, I was unable to find it anywhere.
I feel sorry for any of these people who are being switched over to Gmail's POP3 and are on mailing lists.
Others have written about the situation as well: Gmail + POP + mailing lists = broken
In fact, come to think of it, the entire article summary is built in a certain way:
1. Mention of Google Apps, a product that competes with Microsoft.
2. Mention of something being "broken."
A couple of important notes about that:
2.1. The thing with a potential issue, E-mail sending, has nothing to do with Google Apps, however it's mentioned to create a negative association with them.
2.2. The potential issue is exaggeration to the point of idiocy. Nothing actually gets broken; you just have to change a certain setting on a certain date, and if you don't, it's not like your house catches fire or anything. OR MAYBE IT DOES?!?!?! WHO CAN BE SURE?
And then, the coup de grace:
3. Mention of a Microsoft proprietary technology as a solution.
And of course, can't let that go by without adding:
3.1. A technology that forces everyone into vendor lock-in with the Microsoft Way Of Doing Things, and
3.2. A cure that is far worse than a disease, a technology that opens your system up to all kinds of hacks and attacks for the sake of preventing something that Grandma can easily be walked through fixing. (If you don't believe me, look at all the Grandmas who are walked through setting up their Email by Apple tech help and Evolution e-mail wizards every day.)
In other words, ladies and gentlemen, the summary above has all the hallmarks of a professionally-written Microsoft FUD-job.
Someone was paid to write this article and submit it to Slashdot so that all of our geeky eyes can see it and wonder, "Oh, the horrors of Google Apps! They should have gone with Microsoft," when not only do Google Apps have nothing to do with the problem, the problem itself would have been made worse by the proposed solution.
And they would have gotten away with it if it hadn't 've been for you kids!